Overview of New Starters SIG

A special interest group to facilitate networking amongst ‘new starters’ (statisticians and programmers) working in medical research - the pharmaceutical industry, Contract Research Organisations and Clinical Trial Units. The group will organise between one and three events per year to achieve this. Networking will be facilitated through three types of event – symposia, development and social.

Latest News

At present we are planning events to facilitate networking amongst new starters. Please get in touch if you have ideas that fall within this remit, if you would like to take the lead in organising a specific event, or if you would be interested in being more generally involved in the running of the SIG

Recent Activity

2020

February 2020 saw the second event for our newly restarted SIG, held at King's College London in Waterloo. 25 New Starters participated in an afternoon of networking activities including guest speakers and a data analysis challenge.

2019

In March 2019, IQVIA hosted 40 new starters at their Reading office. Networking activities were supplemented with a workshop on Estimands and a wide range of interesting talks, giving delegates a chance to present to an audience in a relaxed setting.

Objectives

To facilitate networking by organising events that cover the three above categories at least once per year, either by a series of three events or by combining these into fewer events. Examples could include:

Symposia

• Fora to present members’ own work - either as sessions of oral presentations or as scientific poster sessions as a ‘breakout’ activity

• Informal discussion of published research papers in a ‘Journal Club’ framework 

  Development

• Awareness of career paths available within industry. Talks on career paths presented by external speakers

  Social

• Fora in which new starters can meet one another, in an informal setting. These can be considered purely ‘social’ events and include various ‘icebreakers’

• ad hoc satellite events following other PSI meetings

Who we are

Jack Euesden: Principal Statistician, GSK

Samuel Hadlington: Biostatistician, IQVIA

How to get in touch

Upcoming Events

PSI One Day Meeting: New Starters SIG

• Date: 28^th March 2019
• Location: IQVIA, 500 Brook Drive, Reading, RG2 6UU

Full Details

This is the inaugural meeting of the recently relaunched New Starters Special Interest Group. The aim of this meeting is to provide a relaxed environment for early career statisticians to network and interact with their peers across the industry. We will provide a program of informal talks alongside breakout and ice-breaker sessions in order to facilitate discussion amongst attendees. For this one-day meeting the audience will be peers with similar levels of experience and sessions will include content of interest to statisticians early in their careers. In addition to presentations from fellow statisticians there will be a workshop on estimands and ample opportunity to connect with colleagues across the industry. 

If you’re interested in presenting at this event, please send a brief description of your proposed presentation to Sam Hadlington by 8^th February 2019. As we are currently building a New Starters’ SIG Mailing list for updates on future events, please confirm in your reply whether or not you would like to be added to this list and receive information about future events.

Registration

Please click here to register.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How detailed will the description of our proposed presentations need to be if we are interested in presenting?

A short paragraph – 100-200 words – detailing the topic you are interested in presenting on plus up to 5 keywords

2. How many presentations are you looking to accept?

This will depend on the total number of submissions received, but we expect approximately 10+

3. Are there any topics you are interested in hearing about?

At this stage, not specifically. We are hoping to shape the program of the day around the topics received. Some examples of soft/careers-based talks could be on a recent promotion you went for, or an interesting secondment you went on. You could also discuss aspects of your everyday experience at your current workplace. For example, what your office or corporate culture is like, what a typical day looks like, and how you have found settling in. If you’d prefer to present on a more technical area instead, some examples could include a new statistical method you’ve recently learned, or an interesting article you have read.